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Friday, October 19, 2012 Medway Messenger (MM)
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prOud tO Be Oldest rOyAl mArINe
Albert: the teenage Marine recruit still going strong at 101
Still to come
by Dan Bloom dbloom@thekmgroup.co.uk
GOING BACK tO ChIldhOOd Did you know that Pembroke House used to be an orphanage? Joan Goffin grew up there and this week she returned for the first time in 75 years. – See page 8
AS AN apprentice tailor, he longed to be a Marine while he delivered their uniforms to Chatham Dockyard. Now Albert Joyner is proud to be Britain’s oldest Royal Marine veteran – having turned 101 yesterday (Thursday). Albert, who was the son of a Marine and grew up in Chatham, dreamed of serving his country from a young age. He quit an apprenticeship to a local tailor aged 19 so he could join the Royal Marines, where he remained for 26 years and was made a colour sergeant. His service included a narrow escape from the HMS Curacoa, which was bombed near Norway in 1940 with the loss of 30 lives. When his wife Rose ran to Chatham Dockyard to discover his fate, she was told a Joyner had died. It was actually his cousin Bill, who was on the same
Albert Joyner, 101, with daughter Pamela Ruppe Picture: Andy Payton FM2289979
ship. After the war Albert was posted to Malta as a cook, where he began a family with Rose – one which now numbers a daughter, Pamela, four grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. All five generations were united yesterday for a party at
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Pembroke House naval care home in Oxford Road, Gillingham. In a bizarre coincidence, Oxford Road and neighbouring Brasenose Road used to be owned by Brasenose College, Oxford, where Albert worked for decades after he retired from the Navy. The former Glencoe School pupil returned to Medway earlier this year after 24 years’ retirement in West Yorkshire. He and Rose had been married for 62 years when she died in 2000, and instead of staying at home Albert poured himself into charity work. He was given a civic award after raising £14,000 for the Royal British Legion through six years selling poppies in the street. Undeterred by turning 99, he was elected as president of the northern region of the Royal Marine Association for 2011. Albert was modest about the secret to long life. He said: “I’ve always kept myself fit, going for sport whenever I could. I was in the racing boat crew on the ship and I’ve done many different things. “I just take life as it comes. That’s all.”
CHARITY WORK: Albert Joyner, Britain’s oldest Royal Marine veteran, of Pembroke House, Gillingham Picture: Andy Payton FM2290009 See more pictures and buy photos at kentonline.co.uk
Serial shoplifter in court again ONE of Medway’s most prolific shoplifters appeared in court again where she has admitted stealing hundreds of pounds of cosmetics and toiletries. Kellie Hiscock admitted four shoplifting offences and two others when she appeared before Medway magistrates on Tuesday. Hiscock, of Bligh Way, Strood, made the news when she was banned from every shop in the country, apart from two in Strood, in February 2011, when she was convicted of a string of shoplifting offences. The former heroin addict was also implicated in an incident in Edenbridge when an associate of hers ran over a policeman’s leg while Hiscock was shoplifting in the town. On her latest appearance in court, Hiscock admitted steal-
ing £200 of toiletries and painkillers from the Co-op store in Hoo; stealing £121.67 of Glade air fresheners from a Co-op in Chatham as well as £216.59 of cosmetics from Fenns chemist. She also pleaded guilty to stealing £300 of cosmetics from a Lloyds pharmacy and admitted two other offences, which were taken into consideration by the court. Magistrates gave Hiscock a 180 day prison sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered her to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. She was also ordered to pay £698.87 compensation for the items she stole which were not recovered. Chairman of the bench Nigel Day added: “We are pleased you have made progress with your heroin addiction.”
Kellie Hiscock, back in court Picture: Darren Small FM2288277
‘She wants to work but it’s not easy with her background’
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HISCOCK’S solicitor told the court when she came out of prison in June she was facing eviction as she owed more than £900 rent on her flat. Simon Atkinson said: “She has a significant history of theft offences and when she came out of prison in June, the local authority thought she had
abandoned the flat and no rent had been paid on it. “She found herself in debt and was threatened with eviction, I’m afraid to say she did what she knows how to do, she had little alternative.” Mr Atkinson also told the court that Hiscock had put in a claim for benefits but didn’t get any
until September 21. He added: “She is looking to the future and wants to find work, but it’s not easy with her background.” He added: “She is completely drug free and has been since coming out of a rehab centre as part of a previous conviction’s drug rehabilitation order.”